Lakshya bhai superstar: Crowd favourite Sen solves drift to survive scare
Indian badminton star Lakshya Sen survived a challenging first-round match against Collins Valentine Filimon at the World Championships in Delhi. Despite struggling with court drift, Sen managed to overcome the Austrian player after a tense opening game.
Why it matters
The event highlights the high-stakes nature of international badminton and the intense pressure on home-country athletes during major tournaments.
If Ayush Shetty had sent the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium into delirium on Monday, Lakshya Sen had the Delhi crowd singing his name again on Tuesday. The 24-year-old has long been a darling of the capital’s badminton crowd, and the chants that greeted him on Tuesday were familiar ones.“Lakshya bhai superstar”, “Let’s go Lakshya, let’s go”, “Do rupaiya ka Pepsi, Lakshya bhai sexy” rang out from the stands as the men’s singles first-round match got underway. The same chants had echoed around the stadium when Lakshya played at the India Open in January. There is something about the Almora shuttler and this crowd, they have made him one of their own.With the Olympic semi-finalist drawing World No. 128 Collins Valentine Filimon in the opening round, there was an expectation that Lakshya would give his home crowd a show.
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